Saint Joseph Catholic Church

In the ninth special jubilee audience of 2025, Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to the Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897-1980).

“That is why daily moments of silence are so important, whether through adoration, reading Scripture, talking to him, looking for those little spaces of time where we can be with him little by little, we learn to hear his voice, to feel his presence, both within and through the people that he sends to us,” the Pope said.

The Pope also said that technology, while helpful, should not take the place of human relationships, and that “the Church doesn’t belong to any political party. Rather, she helps form your conscience.”

Fathers Henryk Okotolowicz and Andrzej Juchniewicz, who were political prisoners, are now at the Vatican.

Natalia Eismont, press secretary to the nation’s president, said that the prisoners received pardons “at the request of Pope Leo XIV, with the participation of Metropolitan Joseph Stanevsky [Archbishop Iosif Staneuski], as a gesture of goodwill, guided by principles of mercy and humanism, taking into account the health of the convicts, and also with the aim of developing relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Holy See.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who was recent at the meeting, said that “Pope Leo is a true moral force for peace and justice and a champion for children around the world. It was an honor to meet him as part of our mission to bring home the Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and chart a path towards peace and healing for Ukraine.”